Strikes signal Netanyahu poll ploy?

With over 100 people killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza in six days of assault, and diplomats around the world scrambling to prevent a ground attack by Israelis, the question puzzling most people is - why this attack? And, why now?

The reason given by the Israel is that there was an increase in rocket attacks from the Gaza strip into Israeli territory, creating terror and insecurity amongst civilians. Although the numbers are not independently verifiable, Israeli official sources put the number of rockets launched by Hamas or other fighters at over 850 before November 13. So, the Israelis argue, they had to defend themselves.

They started off by carrying out the assassination of Ahmed Jaabari, Hamas military chief, and launched over 1,300 air strikes on Gaza.

However, this picture reveals only part of the truth. Data collected by B'Tselem, the Jerusalem-based Israeli human rights organization shows that since the last Israeli attack on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09, 294 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces in Gaza. The number of Israeli personnel killed by Palestinians is 4.

In fact, B'Tselem data going back till 2000 shows that 4,834 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli attacks in Gaza and West Bank compared to 482 Israelis killed by Palestinians, till December 2008 when Israel launched its three-week all-out assault on Gaza.

This war led to 1,397 Palestinian deaths including 345 children and 764 civilian non-combatants. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) lost 5 soldiers.

Clearly Israeli forces are far ahead in this war of attrition, and for many years too. Israel had occupied Gaza in 1967 after the Six-Day War with Egypt and other Arab countries. It vacated Gaza in 2005 as part of the Oslo Accords process. But after the Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2007, Israel imposed a land-and-sea blockade around Gaza. Only a limited number of trucks with food or medicines are allowed to enter. Several tunnels on the 11-km Egyptian border are used by Gazans for trade with Egypt.

The blockade has been called inhuman and illegal by a host of international figures including the UN Human Rights Commission chief Navi Pillay, and Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories.

According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 34% of Palestinians in Gaza are unemployed and 80% are surviving on international aid. With basic infrastructure destroyed, and 35% of farmland and 85% of sea not accessible, the GDP has dropped by 17% in the past six years.

Another angle to the attack is the timing. The 2008 attack was held just 3 months before the general elections.

Now, four years later, elections are scheduled for January 2013, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to show that he is a tough guy. Whether it will really be accepted by a war weary Israeli public or not, time will tell.